Zero Halliburon
Established 1938Founded in 1938 by Herman Zierold as a metal fabrication company called Zierold Company (and later Zero), Zero Halliburton is a company that manufactures hard-wearing travel cases and briefcases, mainly of aluminium. In 1952 Zero, which until then had no relation to Halliburton, bought the luggage division of Halliburton, the Oklahoma-Texas oilfield services company.
The founder of Halliburton, Erle P. Halliburton, had commissioned an aluminium case in 1938 from aircraft engineers because other luggage could not endure the rough travel through the oil fields in a pickup truck. In addition to being more durable than a leather or cloth case due to its rigidity, the aluminium case seals tightly against dust and water. The aluminium cases have appeared in over 300 Hollywood movies and television shows (including Lost, Mission Impossible, Inception, Ocean’s Eleven and Men in Black) often as a MacGuffin – a plot device with little or no narrative explanation. In addition, Zero Halliburton provided slightly modified cases to NASA in 1969 to use on Apollo 11. The aluminum cases were used to safely carry moon rocks back to Earth. The nuclear football, the briefcase which the President of the United States can use to order a nuclear strike, is also a modified Zero Halliburton case.
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